Grief

 

[Jas 4:9 KJV] 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

This initially sounds like a strange thing for the God Who promises joy---Who reminds us that the “joy of the Lord is our strength”--to command. And then we have Jesus’ words from the “Sermon on the Mount”:

[Mat 5:4 KJV] 4 Blessed are those who mourn: for they shall be comforted.

It doesn’t take very long, living on this earth, to accumulate some sadness. Many children have already been afflicted with death, neglect or addiction of a parent; or divorce and animosity of their parents. Certainly by adolescence, most hearts have been afflicted with sorrow. Jesus was afflicted with it also. He said “My soul is swallowed up in sorrow, even unto death.” [Mt. 26:38]

We lose our loved ones. And we are alienated from some of them due to the divisive influences of the world. The more sensitive and compassionate the soul, the more intimate and fulfilling the relationships, the deeper these sorrows seem to penetrate. What should we do with this sadness and sorrow? We should allow ourselves to feel it, in its darkest depths. We do not have to fear it. It is holy. It is an aspect of our love. How could there be love, in the deepest sense, without sorrow? Christ’s sorrow, as ours, was His Love. In our fear we try to hold ourselves above this sorrow. It feels like an endless pit that we dare not allow ourselves to sink into. We may never come out of it! But God speaks otherwise. Mourn, weep, and feel the heaviness of sorrow. Allow yourself to sink all the way down to what feels like the bottom of the pit; for there you will discover that it is not a pit at all but rather a dark tunnel that you must move through. Jesus, Who has been all the way down into feeling forsaken by the God He had unfailingly obeyed His entire life, will be with you. He allowed Himself to feel this. He did not try to hold Himself above this sorrow so as to avoid casting a cloud of doubt over others’ trust in the God Who conquers all. He felt the sorrow and the forsakeness. And He arose from the grave as an eternal beacon of hope for all those who suffer similarly! There is, without doubt, Light on the other side of the tunnel of sorrow and grief. And it transforms us into more of everything we truly want to be. How could it be otherwise, since it is being allowed by the God Who is Love. When we mourn, we discover that it is just as He said: we are comforted. We can still love—even better than before we entered the dark night of the soul. Then we discover as an inner experience what was spoken through Jeremiah:

[Jer 31:13 KJV] 13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

Harmony

 

I watch the birds on my backyard feeders. Like us, they vary regarding how to share the wealth. Some, like blue jays, woodpeckers and sometimes cardinals, will sit alone in an eighteen square inch feeder filled with sunflower seeds, and immediately drive away any bird that lands, even if on the opposite side of the bountiful feeder. Others, like goldfinches, chickadees, cardinals [sometimes] and house finches will congregate and peacefully share the feeding space. The main theme of the Olympic Opening Ceremony seems to be world peace, mutual respect between nations, the possibility of all human subgroups to be together, competitively but peacefully and respectfully; as the Olympic games hope to demonstrate to a divided world. I guess we’re all hoping that the woodpeckers and blue jays will become more like the finches and chickadees; especially since there certainly seems to be enough for all of us. I suppose it’s childish to think such things. But then, Jesus did say something about becoming like children in order to experience the Kingdom.